


Nothing More

by That_Girl_Under_A_Rock



Series: Infinity War reactions [2]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Compliant, Nebula (Marvel) Angst, Nebula deserves to give the final blow, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), nebula deserves the world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 06:05:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17218379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/That_Girl_Under_A_Rock/pseuds/That_Girl_Under_A_Rock
Summary: Nebula has a decision to make after her father's plans become a reality, and must deal with the loss of the only thing she ever wanted. A sister





	Nothing More

 

At one point or another Nebula did want to eliminate the group who called themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy.

At one point or another she had _definitely_ wanted to kill Gamora.

Now that it's happened, she can’t imagine why she had ever wanted to accomplish any of that.

She could still see the dust blowing through the breeze and mixing with the red Titan dirt. This wasn’t what Nebula wanted. She wanted her father dead. She wanted the means and power to erase Thanos off the face of universe, to free herself of his vice.

             _“You wanted to win, but I only wanted a sister!”_

Just when Nebula thought she was finally on her way to getting everything she wanted, the purple bastard tore her sister away from her, along with the only people she thought would stand a chance against him.  Taking and controlling the Power Stone back on Zandar offered little to no preparation, and defeating Ego was nothing more than dealing with a minor annoyance compared to the fight they faced against her father. All of it was in vain.

Nebula’s dark eyes studied the Terran man crouched on the ground, trying to steady his breath. She supposed at one point in time she too would have doubled over from the raw emotion manifesting itself like a clamp on her lungs. Instead, she found herself staring at the pile of ash that used to be Peter Quill, swirling and mixing with the remnants of Titan, trying to understand what she had witnessed. The only person who had any kind of idea of what she was feeling, was nothing more than dirt under her boots.

Nebula really did think Mantis had had a handle on Thanos. She would have thought subduing a planet would have been more difficult, but then again both Nebula and Gamora had thought that there was no chance in the galaxy that their father would ever get the soul stone. Map or no map, Gamora had assured her that Thanos was not capable of obtaining the stone for his crusade.

Nebula thought her mind had been the one part of herself that was still her. The one part of herself that hadn’t been completely ripped out and replaced. Of course she knew Thanos’ conditioning had affected her thoughts and how she viewed her life, but still she had grown to resent him. That resentment, that hatred for him, belonged to _her_. Those were _her_ thoughts and feelings. Her mind was the only thing she had left of the child he abducted all those years ago.

She wished she could scream, the day Thanos pulled her memories.

They were supposed to be hers, and _only_ hers.

_“All I wanted was a sister!”_

She clearly remembered yelling that at Gamora, and in the moment that followed she did have a sister. Not an enemy, not a rival, a sister. She thought it would be okay for Gamora to talk to her, to confide in her. And yet when the time came to kill Thanos herself, he knew exactly what to do to pry the information from her skull. It was everything she had ever feared thrown into one moment,  and Nebula hated Gamora for choosing her over saving herself and the stone. Not that Thanos would have believed it, but at least Nebula would not have lived any longer knowing that she ultimately lead to her sister’s demise.

When the time came to defeat the bastard who took everything from her, Nebula did what she had to, and nothing more.

_She could have done more_.

She didn’t try to hold him down, didn’t try to pull the gauntlet off. If she were honest with herself, she was doing the same thing as Quill. Waiting. Waiting to hear that Thanos destroyed her sister, needing to hear it come from his own mouth. Knowing he suffered brought her some kind of sick satisfaction she couldn’t explain. Nebula wanted to watch Thanos crumble under the weight of what he had done to his favorite daughter, a remorse he never showed her when he rebuilt her. She was impatient. She had wanted Quill to make Thanos suffer for what he had done. She never thought to hold him back.

            Nebula turned away from the ash piles and turned to the man still sitting in stunned silence as he stared at the ash on his arms.

               “Come on,” she said sternly as she pulled him to his feet. “We need to get off this planet. Let's hope the Milano wasn’t crushed by Daddy Dearest’s temper tantrum.” Half the universe gone or not, Nebula was going to kill Thanos, even if it was the last thing she ever did.            

               The man pushed her hand off and turned to her abruptly. Red rimmed eyes, whether from lack of oxygen due to Titan, or the man’s own inability to compose himself she didn’t know. “We? I think you mean _you._ If _you_ had just held Quill back for a second, for just a _second_ , he and the others wouldn’t be gone!”

               She stared evenly at the man and turned to start walking toward the remains of what looked like one of her ‘adopted’ sibling’s ships. She didn’t think to ask which of the five he and the others had to kill to get the ship. She didn’t care.

               “Then stay here. I really don’t care what you do,” she answered, picking her way through rocks and debris. Nebula wasn’t sure where Thanos would go now, she hoped that he would not return to Titan, but she needed a new plan to go after him. She failed twice and lost everything. She didn’t care about what happened this time.

          Nebula stood before the massive ship, the main deck looking like it had imploded on itself. While the thought of flying it straight into Thanos, like she had done with the pod when she arrived on Titan, was mildly entertaining to her, she knew the ship wasn’t flyable and that finding the Milano was still her best option to get off the planet. She didn’t have to look over her shoulder to know the Terran was following her, she could hear his feet dragging over the rocks and side stepping the broken pieces of the ship.

               Nestled to the side of a boulder, and under a fresh coat of red dust sat Quill’s ship.The side door was still open as if he had expected this to be a dash and go mission. Nebula would have liked to have had the ability to be that hopeful, but Thanos never made anything easy. Not for her anyway. She walked over to the open cargo door, the inside dim and hollow.

               “How is it this managed to come out unscratched,” the Terran man questioned, not hesitating to climb on board the ship.

               Nebula considered the stupid amount of luck Quill had in the past. “Lot of good it is to him now,” she mumbled as she approached the captain’s chair and then .

               “What?”

            “Nothing, just don’t touch anything-“

            “This ship yours?”

            “No, it was Quill’s,” she said frowning as she saw one of Gamora’s swords leaning against one of the chairs as she took apart the control panel of the ship. Nebula couldn’t imagine her sister leaving it there, she hated leaving her weapons lying around. Especially after she found Quill and Drax trying to hack away at each other with them…

            “So you knew his little gaggle?”

            “Yes.” She was more focused on getting the ship started and airborne the small talk the Terran was trying to make. The only thing on her mind was killing her father, and finding the means to do it. It hadn’t taken her long to find Thanos’ ship in the past, she could find him again. She had to.

            “You sure you can get this thing started?”

            “Yes.”

            “And your plan-“

            “I find Thanos, and kill him, make him suffer for everything he’s done, to me, to Gamora-”

            “And I’m just along for ride, right?” The Terran interrupted, “I get it. You want run right off after Thanos. I’d love to, too. But what are you planning to do once you find him? Crash a ship into him, and hope that does it? And then what we’re stranded, if not already dead?!”

            The inside lights of the ship came up at that moment, and though she knew he was right, Nebula just walked over to sword leaning against the chair. “Then what do you suggest, Terran?”

            “My name is Tony Stark, not Terran for starters,” he started as he looked out the front of the ship. “I say we go to earth. I don’t know what the damage there is like, but there might be some-“

            Nebula blinked at him when he stopped talking so abruptly. He stared out the glass like he’d just been slapped in the face.

            Stark quickly shook his head and continued but he seemed like he was forcing out every word, “-Some… people… who can possibly… help us fix this…”

            Nebula said nothing, not knowing what would make him react that way. Of course half the universe was gone, but she supposed it was starting to sink in for him that Titan was not the only planet affected by whatever her father did. She gave a small huff. She hated to admit it, but Stark was right. She’d never kill her father on her own, and if he thought they might find help on Earth, then so be it.

That’s where she would go.

**Author's Note:**

> So Nebula deserves the world, and I hope she's the one who gets to have the final fight with Thanos. Out of all the characters she has more than earned the right to go after him and finish him off.
> 
> As always, I hope you enjoyed reading!


End file.
